Romney reverses on McCain's economic credentials
BOSTON—Three months after Mitt Romney said Washington experience does not translate into economic wisdom, the former Republican presidential contender was on television Tuesday touting the economic credentials of John McCain in part on the strength of his congressional tenure.
The change comes as Romney tries to boost his former rival's chances of winning the White House -- and after he acknowledged he would be interested in serving on the GOP ticket if McCain asked.
It also rekindled a flip-flopping charge that dogged Romney through his campaign.
"I can tell you that for a person who's spent over 25 years in Washington, D.C., working on economic policies from the days of (Ronald) Reagan and throughout the current time, Sen. McCain is very well aware of the spending programs in Washington, which ones need to be cut back, which ones need to be grown. He understands also how to relieve the pressure on the American taxpayer," Romney told CNN just hours before McCain delivered an economic address in Pittsburgh.
Romney also said McCain's time in Congress left him better equipped to handle the economy than the two fellow senators vying for the Democratic presidential nomination.
"This is an individual who, well, if you take Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's experience and multiply it by 10, you still haven't caught up with Sen. McCain when it comes to experience on the economy," he said.
Yet questioning McCain's economic credentials was the centerpiece of Romney's recent Florida primary campaign. It continued through their Feb. 5 Super Tuesday showdown, which McCain won and forced Romney from the race.
For example, on Jan. 25 in Pensacola, Fla., Romney mocked McCain for equating his Senate tenure and committee chairmanship with Romney's prior work in the private sector as a venture capitalist and outside the Beltway as governor of Massachusetts.
"Now he's engaging in 'Washington talk,' " Romney said of McCain, jabbing as the senator's self-professed "straight-talk" manta. "`Washington talk' says that somehow, because you've been in Washington, and you've been on a committee, that you somehow know about how the jobs of this country have been created."
The Democratic National Committee accused Romney of flip-flopping and ignoring his past opposition to elements of McCain's economic plan, including a proposal to suspend the federal gasoline tax this summer. Romney opposed a similar idea amid a price spike in Massachusetts in 2005.
"Not only don't they understand how to deliver the change our country needs, they think the American people aren't smart enough to see through the wishy-washy pandering rhetoric that so clearly only offers more of the same failed Bush policies," spokeswoman Karen Finney said.
Romney said in a phone call to The Associated Press later Tuesday that his comments in part acknowledged the verdict of the voters.
"There's no question any one of the three would have benefitted from a lifetime of service in the private sector that I enjoyed. That's why I thought I was the strongest candidate. The voters chose differently," Romney said. "All three of them have experience in the Senate. In that regard, he has a lot more experience than them."
Romney added: "I wouldn't have run for president if I didn't think I were the best guy for the job, but when it comes to comparing John McCain's experience with that of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, he stands hear and shoulders above them."
Romney's revised view of Washington experience recalled the 1980 GOP primary campaign, when George Herbert Walker Bush derided rival Ronald Reagan for preaching "voodoo economics" before setting aside his supply side concerns and accepting Reagan's offer to join him on the party ticket.
Similarly, Romney was unsparing in his criticism of McCain -- for whom he is now raising money -- during this primary campaign.
"There's an arrogance that sets into Washington, that somehow they know everything, that people in Washington know better than the people of America," Romney said during that Jan. 25 visit to Pensacola.
"I don't think somebody from the inside is going to be able to turn Washington inside out," Romney said Jan. 26 in St. Petersburg, Fla.
"No one needs to give me a briefing on the economy. I won't need to choose a vice president that understands the economy -- because I know the economy," Romney said a day later in Sweetwater, Fla.
On Jan. 29, in his Florida concession speech, Romney did not relent. He told a prime-time audience: "At a time like this, America needs a president in the White House who has actually had a job in the real economy." He added, "At a time like this, knowing how America works is more important than knowing how Washington works."
And on Feb. 1, Romney told a crowd at a Denver Ford dealership: "At a time like this, in a country like this, I think it is important to have a president for whom the economy is his strong suit."
